CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Shaoxing it runs 308 km to Shaoxing; allow about 4 h 03 of riding. It goes by way of West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou, Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal and back through West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 64 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Shaoxing is a city built on water. Its canals, bridges and narrow stone-paved lanes have made it one of the most photogenic towns in eastern China, and the Zhedong Canal, which links Hangzhou, Shaoxing and Ningbo, is its great artery. The canal belongs to the Grand Canal system, the longest artificial waterway in the world, which UNESCO listed in 2014. The Zhedong section carried grain, silk, tea and travellers for more than a thousand years, and in Shaoxing you can still see black-awninged boats, arched stone bridges and old warehouses along the banks.
Read the complete Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh is where the day begins. Next is West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou.
There is a Chinese saying that in heaven there is paradise, and on earth there are Suzhou and Hangzhou. The West Lake, on the western edge of Hangzhou, has inspired poets, painters and garden designers for more than a thousand years, and its blend of water, hills, causeways, pagodas and temples became a model for landscape gardens across China, Japan and Korea. UNESCO inscribed it as a cultural landscape in 2011. The Su causeway, built by the poet-governor Su Dongpo in the eleventh century, and the Bai causeway, named after the Tang poet Bai Juyi, cross the lake, lined with willows and peach trees.
Read the complete West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal.
Nanxun is one of the water towns of the Yangtze delta, south of Lake Tai, where life has revolved around canals for more than a thousand years. In the nineteenth century, it became immensely rich through the silk trade, and its merchant families, known by nicknames like the four elephants and the eight bulls, built mansions that mixed Chinese courtyards with European columns, stained glass and Western-style furniture, an unusual blend you will not find in many other water towns. The canal running through the town is part of the Grand Canal, the immense waterway linking Beijing with Hangzhou, which UNESCO listed in 2014.
Read the complete Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 153 km into the recorded legs you reach Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal. Next is back through West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou, late in the day. Next is Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh. That is the ride.
Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh → West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou → Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal is 97 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal → back through West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou is 98 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou → Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.